ISLAMABAD: Confusion prevails over the eligibility of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to contest the Oct 7 by-elections for three provincial assembly seats as it has failed to submit the consolidated statement of accounts with the Election Commission of Pakistan, a requirement under the Political Parties Order 2002.
Instead of submitting the statement of accounts, the party sent an application to the ECP last week, seeking one month’s extension.
The ECP is yet to take a decision on it. In its application, the PTI cited its engagement in the Aug 22 by-elections as the reason for its failure to meet the requirement.
The law is silent on the issue of ECP power to give relaxation to a political party and extend the date. However, there are some confusions.
Under article 13 of the Political Parties Order, every political party is required to submit within 60 days after the close of a financial year the consolidated statement of accounts to the ECP, duly audited by a chartered accountant. And according to article 14, if a party fails to submit its statement of accounts it will not be eligible to obtain an election symbol for contesting the elections. But the law does not specifically mention if the term ‘election’ also covers the by-polls.
Even the Allocation of Symbols Order 2002 does not clearly specify if the symbol allocated to a political party before general elections will be its property till the next elections.
A senior ECP official told Dawn that election symbols were allocated once in five years and article 14 of the Political Parties Order did not bar any party from contesting subsequent by-elections.
But he could not explain why a specific period had been mentioned in the law for submitting the statement every year when failure to meet the requirement entailed no penalty. He agreed that like several other vague election laws, it also needed to be amended to make it meaningful.
Constitutional expert Zafar Ali Shah was of the opinion that the ECP had the power to extend the period for submission of the statement of accounts. The PTI could contest the by-elections if it submitted the mandatory statement before Oct 7.